With the 2017-18 season, Vancouver Thunderbirds Hockey has launched a new vision and mission.

Vision:A thriving hockey community in which players, coaches, officials and volunteers are valued, respected and engaged.

Association's Mission: Creating a rewarding hockey experience for our community of players that is founded on character, teamwork and the pursuit of excellence on and off the ice.

With these front of mind, and our desire of bringing the athlete experience to the forefront of all decision making, our goal is simple - to make playing hockey as a Thunderbird a great experience!

But we cannot accomplish this as a Board and staff without the support and assistance of the people who have the greatest influence on our players...our Thunderbird parents.

Your Mission

Simply put, we will not be a successful association without your help. We have a handful of non-parent coaches, the rest are on the ice with their child's team. All of our managers are parents. Tournaments are led and organized by parents. There isn't a single function over the year that does not happen without the involvement of our parents.

At the beginning of every season, every parent will be required to indicate how they will assist their team or the Association. The following list provides a list of options and additional ones may be presented by your team manager.

Association Volunteer Roles

During registration, parents will have the opportunity to select one or more of the following areas to obtain more information about. If you are interested in any of these roles, and did not indicate it during registration for your player(s), please contact Tanya here.

In Season Ice Allocator(s) (Honorarium)

We are looking for 1 or 2 people to oversee the in-season ice allocation. This will include assisting with resolving conflict games, tracking cancelled ice times, and ensuring any open ice is offered to other teams.

This may be handled by one person or a shared responsibility between 2 or 3.

The ideal is to have a minimum of one parent from each birth year fill this role. This will allow for at least two people to be involved in the atom to midget age groups.

Acts as a key component of the communication chain

For Initiation and Recreational, assists the Association with the balancing process (currently under revision and will involve some type of collaborative approach with association staff, coaches and division managers)

Works with Association staff to manage the affiliate tracker within and between divisions during the season

Provides support to the team managers

Assists the Association in identifying issues and finding solutions

Will be supported by the Membership and Events Coordinator

Note: Division Ambassador for Initiation and Recreational will be identified prior to the start of the season. The Division Managers for Rep will be identified after tryouts are completed.

On-ice coach for Canucks Learn to Play Program

We are excited about a new opportunity we have been given starting this season to partner with the Vancouver Canucks to offer a six week Learn to Play program starting in January. We will need a number of on ice coaches to help with the program and we know that not everyone who signs up will end up being available once their own team's ice schedule is known, so we are looking to find 15-20 coaches to put up their hands to assist with this one.

Rep Tryout Support

There are a number of small tasks that we are looking for people to assist with during rep tryouts. Ideally it would be great to have one person per age division (atom, peewee, bantam, midget) to take on each one of the following:

Pre-event Jersey setup

Registration (day one only)

Volunteer coordinators for:

Coaches

Timekeepers

Balancing Process Support

There are a number of small tasks that we are looking for people to assist with during the internal Thunderbird Balancing Process in September. Ideally it would be great to have one person per age division (atom, peewee, bantam, midget) to take on each one of the following:

Pre-event Jersey setup

Registration (day one only)

Volunteer coordinators for:

Coaches

Timekeepers

Thunderbird Fundraising Coordinator (Honorarium) and Volunteers

It has been a while since the overall fundraising plan for the Thunderbirds has been reviewed with new ideas being investigated. As we want to develop more of a "family" and "community" within the TBirds, we would love to pull together a few people to help us find some really fun and engaging ways to get our members together that can also help us hit our fundraising target for the season.

While it might be helpful for our lead to have a bit of experience with some fundraising events in their background, we need a good mix of volunteers who are planners, creative thinkers, or just plain fun to help out with one or more events over the season!

Thunderbird Tournament Coordinators (Honorarium) and Volunteers

An Association Tournament Coordinator and a number of volunteers are required for each of the four Thunderbird hosted tournaments: Thanksgiving Atom A4, Remembrance Day PeeWee A4, Pre-Christmas Atom A1 and Initiation Family Day.

The lead will oversee a tournament committee that will coordinate all aspects of a specific tournament including (but not limited to)

logistics

sponsorship

communication with external teams

work with staff to create communication plan

onsite fundraisers (eg raffles) and works with staff to obtain gaming licenses

A new program for the 2018-19 season we are hoping to fully implement is a "Players Giving Back" program in which Bantam and Midget aged TBirds assist on the ice with our younger teams.

We will need to have one lead who will work with staff and a small group of volunteers to assist in the recruitment, training and tracking of the players while acting as liaisons with the team coaches.

TBirds in the Community Lead and Volunteers

This is a potential new program that we are looking to implement but need to know if we have members who may have passion for helping with it. The basic concept would be to work with our teams to find ways to engage with various groups within Vancouver to volunteer and create a direct connection with our community.

Graphic Designer, Photo Editor, Website Design, or HTML Support

From time to time, the Association requires small elements for the website or print materials that is beyond the skill set of staff. Whether it is a graphic element or some unique feature for the website, if you have some awesome skills and wouldn't mind helping out for a couple hours once or twice over the season, it would be an amazing help!

Social Media / Website Content Creation

We are hoping to be able to create the ability to tell more of the amazing stories that all of our teams create. We will be asking for each team to submit some stories/pictures, and need someone who can help put them together for the website or to share on social media.

Photo Day Volunteers

To help keep things moving quickly and make sure everyone gets their picture forms filled out and their pictures picked up once ready, we need 2-4 volunteers to help organize the photo day fun and make arrangements for teams to pick up the final products.

Equipment Swap Event

The idea of holding an equipment swap during the summer has been suggested from within the membership. The timing of when that would be successful is difficult for staff to oversee as they will be focused on camps and the start of season activities, but if we have a few people within the membership who would want to make this happen, it could be a great addition to our Thunderbird community.

Career Mentorship Event

Thunderbirds have a strong group of parents from all walks of life and career that could be a great resource and connection for our players in high school who are looking at their future. We would like to start an event(s) that could help bring these two groups together in the same room for a casual interaction.

Other Areas

From time to time, we have parents who have a passion and sees an opportunity to combine that with a positive impact on our membership that we have not identified. We would love to hear your ideas and discuss the opportunity.

Team Staff Roles

Head Coach

Description:

Actively participate in the division balancing process

Plan and implement weekly practice plans

Pre-game preparation and coaching of games

Coordinate the delegation of responsibilities to assistant coaches and Manager

Acts as the point of contact for staff to relay information on upcoming fundraisers to

Ensures the team meets any requirements for fundraising for the association that is required

Dressing Room Oversight

Vancouver Thunderbirds Hockey requires dressing rooms to be monitored at all times by a minimum of two adults. It is the responsibility of the Head Coach, with support from other team staff, to ensure this rule is enforced which will require assistance from other team parents.

When any and all players under the age of 19 are
in the team dressing room, before, during and after a game or practice, a minimum of two adults (either team officials or designated parents) shall be present in the dressing room or immediately outside the dressing room with the door ajar.

Players are NEVER to be left unattended at any time.

Vancouver Thunderbirds Hockey Mission
Creating a rewarding hockey experience for our community of players that is founded on character, teamwork and the pursuit of excellence on and off the ice.